Fedora can be used to send electronic mail and communicate in real time with people around the world through instant messaging and chat rooms. In GNOME, Evolution is used to send electronic mail (email) by default. Evolution can also be used as a personal information manager, or PIM. You can maintain a calendar, manage a list of tasks, and keep an address book of contacts.

In KDE, Kmail is used to send email by default. While Kmail does not include a calendar, a calendar application called KOrganizer is included as part of the KDE PIM suite. There is also an application called Kontact which groups KMail, Korganizer and other KDE PIM tools into a single interface (comparable with GNOME's Evolution).

Thunderbird is an open-source mail client maintained by Mozilla. It is very extensible, with an online plug-in library akin to Mozilla Firefox. Claws Mail is a more lightweight email client and news reader, which is also extensible via additional plug-ins. Claws Mail only supports plaintext emails by default.

Pidgin and Kopete are both Instant Messaging (IM) programs that allow you to talk to people in real-time using chat networks like AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, or Gmail chat. XChat is Fedora's default graphical IRC client and Konversation is the default IRC client for KDE. ChatZilla is an IRC client installed and used via the FireFox web browser. These clients can all connect to IRC servers which provide chat rooms for people around the world to discuss specific topics.

Evolution is a full featured email program. In addition to email, Evolution features a personal information manager (PIM), a calendar, task manager and an address book for your contacts.
More documentation for Evolution is available at: http://www.gnome.org/projects/evolution/documentation.shtml

Running the software for the first time displays the Evolution Setup Assistant wizard. Answer these questions using information provided by your ISP or e-mail provider.

The Identity screen relates to personal information about the account, including Name, Organization, and Address. There is also a Reply-To field, which will allow you to specify that recipients of mail from this account can reply to a different email address than the one that sent the email.

The Receiving Email and Sending Email screens both require information from the e-mail provider.

To add a new account in the future, or to modify an existing account, launch the preferences dialog from the Edit > Preferences menu. In the dialog that appears, press the [Add] button to launch the Evolution Account Assistant again.

To configure your email account you will need the email information provided by your ISP or email provider.

Open Thunderbird by going to the menu bar and clicking on Applications > Internet > Thunderbird.

The first time you start Thunderbird the Account Wizard opens to guide you through the setup of your account. If the Account Wizard does not open, select File > Create New Account in the main window to open the wizard.

Select Email account and press [Next].

Fill in your name and email address, and click [Next].

Now choose POP or IMAP and type in the names of the Incoming and Outgoing servers and select [Next]. This information should have been provided by your email service.

In the next window, fill in your username for your email provider. Normally your Incoming and Outgoing username are the same. Press [Next].

Type in whatever you want for your Account Name and click [Next]. This will be used to represent the new account in Thunderbird.

Check the summary in this window. If something needs to be changed press the [Back] button; otherwise click [Finish]. Now Thunderbird connects to the server to download your email messages.

If the download fails, your email account may require secure connections. In this case, select Edit > Account Settings > Server Settings and select your secure setting. Often the setting is SSL, but this information should be provided by your email service.

The Thunderbird Data Profile Folder contains your email messages, addresses, and program settings. To move your profile data from Windows to Fedora requires that the data folder be copied to a CD/DVD, memory stick, or other mobile media. If you have set up multiple accounts in Thunderbird, they can be moved as well, one at a time, following these steps:

If you cannot find it try: Start > Run > enter %AppData% and press [Enter].

Application Data FolderIf this folder is missing, go to the top menu and select: Tools > Folder Options > View (Tab) > and check the box Show Hidden Files and Folders.

Now, right mouse click on the folder and select: Send To > CD/DVD or memory stick. Then press the [Back] button until you arrive at My Computer and check to make sure the folder was saved to the media.

To move the folder to Fedora you need to have your email account, or accounts, set up. When you set up an email account Thunderbird automatically sets up the Profile Data Folder.

Plug in the media containing the folder you copied from Windows.

On the top menu, in Fedora, select Places > Home > .thunderbird or it may be .mozilla-thunderbird. > xxxxxx.default.

Open the xxxxx.default folder and delete all files and folders: Edit > Select All > Edit > Move to Trash. Leave this window open.

Now open the media and click on the folder saved from Windows to open it. Select: Edit > Select All > Edit > Copy.

Move back to the Fedora window with the open folder and click Edit > Paste.

Close all windows and start Thunderbird. You have migrated your Thunderbird email messages, addresses, and settings from Windows to Fedora.

The first time you press the [Get mail] button you are asked for your password. Type in your password and press [ Enter ] or click the [ Ok ] button. You may wish to check the box Use Password Manager to remember this password. If you do, Thunderbird will automatically check your email without asking for your password in the future. Before choosing this option, remember that there is always some risk associated with storing a password. If your password and setup was correct, Thunderbird will now download your email messages from the server.

Below are the functions of the buttons located on the top menu bar:

Button

How the button functions

Get Mail

Prompts Thunderbird to send and receive all email.

Write

Opens a new email message dialog box.

Address Book

Opens the email addresses you have on file.

Reply

Replies to the person who has sent you an email.

Reply All

Replies to everyone who was included in the email that you have received.

To configure your email account you will need the email information provided by your internet service or email provider.

Open Claws Mail by going to the menu bar and click on Applications > Internet > Claws Mail.

The first time you start Claws Mail the Claws Mail Wizard appears and will guide you through the set up of your account.

The first page will ask you to fill in your name, (sometimes it is guessed from the operating system) and your email address.

On the next page enter details of how to retrieve your mail:

POP3: Enter the server address, username, and password. If you don't enter your password here you will be prompted for it each time it is needed.

IMAP: Enter the server address, username, password, and IMAP server directory. The password is optional, if you don't provide it here you will be prompted for it each time it is needed. The IMAP server directory is also optional, often it is not needed and can be left empty.

Local mbox file: Enter the location of your local mailbox spool file. Values such as /var/mail/username or /var/spool/mail/username are common, username is your system login.

On the next page enter the address of your SMTP (Outgoing) server. You may not need to authenticate when sending mail.

If you chose either POP3 or Local mbox file, the next page will the show the default where it will save your mail.

You may get a "Security" page, where you can choose SSL encryption to send and receive your emails. If you're unsure leave them unselected.

Claws Mail allows you to create, store and send email by clicking the appropriate buttons located on the menu. Retrieving your email can be done from the toolbar button named Get mail or from the Receive submenu of the Message menu.

Button

How the button functions

Get Mail

Allows Claws Mail to receive all email.

Compose

Opens a new email message dialog box. Press [TAB] to autocomplete the To: email address from the Address Book.

Reply

Replys to the person who has sent you an email.

Reply to All

Replies to everyone who was included in the email that you have received.

Sender

Replies to the person who sent the email.

Forward

Forwards the email message to another person.

Trash

Moves the message to the Trash folder.

Spam

Tells the program to learn the email as Spam, also has option to mark it as Ham. Moves the message to the Trash folder.

Kmail is the standard email client used in KDE it is installed by default from the live-cd and is also included in the DVD. Loading Kmail in KDE is done by clicking on Kmenu > Applications > Internet > Mail Client menu entry or alternatively Applications > Internet > Kmail in GNOME.

Running the software for the first time displays the main Kmail page with links to help locations.

To configure your account you will need your email information from your internet service or email provider.

Setting up your account requires you to open the Configure Kmail dialog box from the Settings > Configure Kmail menu entry.

Selecting Accounts and pressing the [Add] button will launch a dialog that will ask you for the type of account you wish to configure.

After selecting the appropriate account type you will be greeted with a dialog that shows the different settings available for your account. Add your personal email configuration information to Account Name, Login, Password, Host. The other default settings could be left alone.

To add a new account in the future, or to modify an existing account, launch the configure Kmail from the Settings > Configure Kmail menu entry. In the dialog that appears, select Accounts then press the [Add] button to launch the Kmail Account Assistant again.

Kmail allows you to create, store and send email by clicking the appropriate buttons located on the menu.

Button

How the button functions

New Message

Opens a new 'Compose email' dialog box.

Save as

Saves the email.

Print

Prints the message.

Check Mail in

Downloads emails from the remote server.

Reply

Replies to the selected email.

Forward

Forwards the email message to another person.

Previous

Moves to the previous unread email in your folder.

Next

Moves to the next unread email in your folder.

Trash

Deletes the email.

Find Message

Searches for a specific email.

Create Task

Creates a new task in KOrganizer.

Additional OptionsKmail has additional options with the green arrow pointing down. While not covered specifically in this topic clicking the button and holding it down for a few seconds will show additional options.

Select one of the enabled accounts to see the Buddy List window. These Menus allow you to add additional IM contacts.

All 16 supported protocols are available at the same time within Pidgin. If you have setup several accounts in Pidgin, such as Yahoo, Google Talk, and AIM accounts, then all of your contacts for each of these accounts will be available to chat with at the same time, in the same contact list.

Not all features supportedPidgin does not support some features of the included protocols. Pidgin is useful for chatting via text across 16 different IM protocols, but not all the features in each IM system are supported. For example, video is not supported at this time.

Fedora does not register accountsPidgin requires an existing account on some of the IM networks, created via the normal account creation process. For example, Pidgin cannot be used to create a Yahoo Instant Messenger account. Instead, visit http://messenger.yahoo.com to set up the account, then access it using Pidgin. This is true for most types of instant messaging, although some protocols - like Bonjour, IRC, or SILC - do not require accounts at all, and Fedora can setup accounts for some types of IM networks.

Kopete is the Instant Messenger installed in KDE by default.
Kopete can be found in Kmenu > Applications > Internet > Instant Messenger In GNOME Kopete can be found in Applications > Internet > Kopete.
For further documentation on Kopete, refer to: http://kopete.kde.org/

To start and configure Kopete, select Applications > Internet > Kopete from the menu panel in GNOME or KMenu > Applications > Internet > Kopete in KDE. Starting Kopete for the first time takes you directly to the creating accounts dialog. To configure a new account:

Click the selected messaging service you desire.

In the Account Information window, enter your details that you are using to connect to the services.

Make sure to fill out the details on the other tabs.

Once the account is added, click [Next] and choose the option to connect to the service and then click [Finish].

New accounts can be added in the future by navigating to the Settings > Configure > menu entry in the main Kopete window then clicking the [Accounts] button after it has loaded.

Kopete comes with a wide range of messaging services such as:

AIM

GroupWise

ICQ

IRC

Jabber

Meanwhile

MSN Messenger

Testbed

WinPopup

Yahoo

Accounts for these services can be added to Kopete using the steps above.

Xchat is an IRC chat program. It allows you to join multiple IRC channels (chat rooms) at the same time, talk publicly, private one-on-one conversations and is capable of transfering files. More information is available at: http://xchat.org/

When you open XChat the XChat: Network List window appears. Fill in your choices for your Nick name, username and realname. Your username can be anything you like.

Now choose a network to join from the Networks window. Select which one you want by clicking it.

Select [Edit] which opens another window listing the network you selected. For now make sure the box Use global user information is checked. Go down to the Favorite Channels: field and type in the channel you want to join. You can also click on the small [Button] to the right of the field which will bring up a window where you can [Add], [Remove] and [Edit] your channels . Most networks require # placed before the name of the channel. For example: #fedora-userguide.

Click the [Close] button.

Select [Connect] and you are connected to your channel.

You configure your preferences for XChat while attached to the network. On the top menu bar select Settings > Preferences and choose your text, background and sound preferences.

ChatZilla is an IRC chat program from Mozilla. It is easy to use and is a highly extensible IRC client. It has all the usual features including a built-in list of standard networks, easy searching and sorting of available channels, logging, DCC chat and file transfers. For more informaiton go to: http://chatzilla.hacksrus.com/faq/

The ChatZilla window opens where you will see the word *Client* in the middle of the page. At the bottom are links to a few of the most popular Networks. If your Network is among them just click on the link and ChatZilla will attach to it and automatically add it your Preferences > Startup (Tab).

It is real time-saver to edit your chosen Network and Channels so they automatically connect. Select Preferences > Startup (Tab) and scroll down to the Auto-connect URLs window, select the Network and click [Edit]. Now add /#your-channel to the end, click [Apply] then the [Ok] buttons.

If your Network is not listed, go to the top menu bar and choose Preferences > Startup (Tab), scroll down to the Auto-connect URLs window, click [Add], and type in your network. For example: irc://yournetwork., then click [Apply] and the [Ok] buttons.

If you know the channel you want to connect to automatically enter irc://yournetwork/#your-channel.. Don't forget to click the [Apply] and [Ok] buttons.

Finally, add few Nick names by selecting Lists (Tab) > [Add] and type in a Nick name and click [Ok]. Two or three Nick names are recommended in case someone else is using your first choice.

On the top menu bar click Tools > Chatzilla and you will automatically attach to your Networks and channels.

It is not necessary to have your channel(s) connect when you start ChatZilla. Once you have attached to your Network(s) you can select IRC > Join channel and type in your favorite channel, or part of it in the Quick Search box. Then click on the [Join] button when your channel appears in the box. But you will have to do these steps each time unless you setup ChatZilla to attach automatically .